Note 34 — CHAP. II.
Reading edition
Footnote 34:
(return)
Of the antiquity of the custom of kissing the Pope's foot we have proofs in Anastasius the librarian in the lives of Popes Constantine and Leo IV. When Valentine was elected Pope in 827, his feet were kissed by the Roman senate and people at S. John Lateran's. Numerous instances also are on record of sovereigns who have kissed the feet of the Popes, and Pouyard has written a dissertation to shew, that this custom was anterior to that of marking the papal shoes or sandals with a cross. This token of profound respect was given also to the emperors of the east at Byzantium.